How dare the EU tell us how to run our own economy

IF YOU want to understand why on Monday the European Commission demanded that the British Government change its economic policy - just a week after the biggest triumph for Eurosceptics in history - then I'll let you in on a secret.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ideas that could go against the UK's interests [AP]

There are only three things you need to know if you want to understand almost any political issue.

They are the Three Laws of Politics, as laid down by historian Robert Conquest: 1) Everyone is conservative about what he knows best.

2) Any organisation not explicitly and constitutionally Right-wing will sooner or later become Left-wing.

And for our purposes it's the third law that is relevant: 3) The behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.

Nothing better illustrates this than Monday's astonishing intervention by the Commission, chastising David Cameron and George Osborne as if they were rebellious schoolboys.

The Brussels bureaucrats demanded that the British Government raise taxes, provide more affordable childcare and cut back Help To Buy, the mortgage scheme that assists wannabe homeowners.

And, for good measure, they said that Britain should consider introducing new land and property taxes to "alleviate distortions in the housing market…

Labour's economic policies might be a recipe for disaster but at least they will be put to the British people for a vote

To assist with fiscal consolidation, consideration should be given to raising revenues through broadening the tax base." As if that wasn't enough, the Commission also said that the British Government should change its deficit reduction plan by "prioritising capital expenditure".

Labour's economic policies might be a recipe for disaster but at least they will be put to the British people for a vote.

Not a single human being has ever been elected to the Commission and not one of the bureaucrats in Brussels has ever had a policy put to the vote.

As one Government source was reported to have said in response, given the relative growth rates of the UK and much of the rest of the EU: "How do you spell irony?"

If Nigel Farage was trying to find evidence to persuade British voters that the EU is beyond salvation then he couldn't have engineered a better response from Brussels more calculated to prove that point.

By staying out of the euro we avoided Greek-style meltdown. By pursuing a sensible economic policy we have dragged ourselves out of recession and are now enjoying some of the best growth rates in the EU.

And British voters have, within the week, given their verdict on the respective merits of Brussels versus Britain. But no matter: Brussels carries on issuing instructions to democratically elected governments as if nothing has changed. Because, you see, nothing actually has changed.

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Voters might have stuck two fingers up to the idea of Brussels telling us how we should be governed. But we are as kneedeep today in EU law and EU supremacy as we were before a vote had been cast. And if you want more proof that nothing has changed - or will - just look at Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker.

Mrs Merkel needs no introduction. As for M Juncker; if Mrs Merkel gets her way (and as German Chancellor she is used to getting her way in Europe) we will soon know him all too well, because he will be the next President of the European Commission.

His biographical description as a former Luxembourg prime minister reads like the punchline to some kind of joke about the most unimportant status symbols on the planet. He's not even the current PM… More importantly, in the city of arch-federalists he's one of the most extreme.

If you tried to draw up a "no-change, Brussels juggernaut rolls on" candidate then you'd be hard pressed to come up with anyone who comes close. And yet this is the man whom Mrs Merkel insists on foisting on us. So much for the idea that she is somehow David Cameron's great ally in his renegotiations.

She might say the right things at a press conference standing next to David Cameron every now and then, but when push comes to shove she's not remotely interested in real reform.

Of course she isn't, because her vision of the EU - just like the rest of the Brussels crew - is very different to the British people's, of sovereign nations coming together for trade and co-operation.

David Cameron is quite right to pursue a renegotiation. If my analysis turns out to be completely wrong and we win everything we need to transform our membership - hurrah!

More likely, however, is that the renegotiation will fail. But that will show, with laser-like clarity, that we really can't change the EU. And if we don't like our membership terms then we have to withdraw.

Meanwhile, as events pan out until the attempted renegotiation is completed, remember Conquest's Third Law: "The behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies."

Why else would a man such as Jean-Claude Juncker, the walking, talking embodiment of no-change, be the favourite to take over the Commission?Unless it's the Third Law at play and Ukip has secret agents running the Commission itself.

And it has decided to pull the trigger on Operation "Sod The Voters" - a carefully crafted manoeuvre designed to show the British people that there is no possibility of the EU ever listening to the voice of its so-called "citizens".